Graduate Studies
First Advisor
Peisi Huang
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
Physics & Astronomy
Date of this Version
8-9-2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Citation
A dissertation presented to the faculty of the Graduate College of the University of Nebraska in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Major:
Under the supervision of Professor
Lincoln, Nebraska, August 2024
Abstract
The large matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe and whether the electroweak sector has always been broken are currently unanswered by the standard model (SM). One solution that addresses both these concerns is to impose a strong first order electroweak phase transition (SFOEWPT) and ensure electroweak baryogenesis occurs. Models that undergo a SFOEWPT in the early universe create bubbles of the true vacuum that expand until the universe reaches the vacuum expectation value measured today. If the phase transition is strong enough, then these bubbles may generate a detectable stochastic gravitational wave (GW). However, the SM by itself can only perform a smooth cross over phase transition, thus we extended the SM with a real scalar singlet and required the above criteria. Although the model is simple, the mixed-mass eigenstates create a rich phenomenology from light to heavy singlet masses. We analyzed the parameter space for singlets masses up to 2 TeV, carefully imposing the necessary theoretical and experimental constraints for each regime and ensuring that a SFOEWPT occurred. We found that much of the parameter space can be probed by future collider and GW experiments.
Recommended Citation
Hooper, Anthony James, "Strong First Order Electroweak Phase Transitions in the Standard Model with a Real Scalar Singlet Extension" (2024). Dissertations and Doctoral Documents from University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–. 191.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissunl/191
Comments
Copyright 2024, the author. Used by permission